The Brexit thing

Are we making too much of it, this Brexit thing? It’s not as though the S.S. Great Britain is going to detach itself and float off into the Atlantic. In any case we’ve still got the umbilical cord of the ‘Chunnel’. Engineers tell me that both concrete and steel have degrees of elasticity, (sounds crazy, but what do I know) but even they don’t think it’ll stretch to America.

Of course the original SS Great Britain did make it across the pond to Uncle Sam so perhaps that’s an omen – your choice whether it’s a nice or a nasty.

The thing is, what difference will it make? Don’t get me wrong, it’ll make a massive difference to loads of things that don’t really matter: like taxes, the NHS, international travel, incomes etc. but what about the things that do really matter? Like; what to do with the scores of redundant MEP’s, who, presumably, will still qualify for a pension but will have nowhere to sit and squabble. Once we’ve dispensed with the ‘naughty seat’ of the European Parliament they’ll be back over here creating.

No, the real problem is ‘the Moaners’. I don’t mean the ‘remoaners’; those people who foolishly thought that ‘Representative Democracy’ meant electing representatives who would inform themselves of the issues and vote according to the best interests of the greater number. And I don’t mean those who voted ‘Out’ because it was a good way to ‘stick it up’ the metropolitan cosmopolitan elites: Respect Guys- Good job; let’s hope my kids and yours can all survive the consequences;.

No, not them. My worry is the Upper Crust Opinion Formers, whose existence is defined by their next complaint. Deprived of Europe to blame for our woes what will they do? Actually I’ve no doubt some of them will continue to blame Europe. Having decided we don’t want to trade with Europe on an ‘open’ basis they will get upset because Europe won’t trade with us on an ‘open’ basis.

Or, they could return to tradition and blame the government, but who cares these days about tradition. Some of the more inventive ‘moaners’ have already invested enormous energy in complaining that Britain’s largest least racist political party is exceedingly and nastily racist. If they’re not careful they’ll run out of ideas.

So, when we go bang out of the European Community, and when T. May returns a racially challenged Tory Party with a whopping majority, and when things go belly up, who will they blame? Because, even if everything goes brilliantly (trust me, it won’t) they’ll find something else to moan about and someone else to blame: it’s what they do.

As for the SS Great Britain: Omen-wise, that once-proud ship is now a museum piece. In it’s dry dock it has the iillusion of being afloat, but it’s just plate glass.